Yesterday I was sailing quite overpowered, (3.9, Evo70,) in a 20 deg cross on wind, mushy waves
I was having difficulty in going from the "very slow close to the wind position, waiting for a wave" to turning onto the wave for a frontside ride. I could do it when the wind dropped, but not overpowered.

What technique should I use?

In words of one syllable please! :-)

Ronnie

Chris Pressler

31st October 2008, 04:05 PM

Hi Ronnie,
most important is, that you could do it. Perhaps your sail was much too big in size. You could get a smaller fin in your board and for sure a 370 mast. In my opinion you could take a wide grip on the boom befor ethe turn, sheet in very aggressive before initiating whileopening the sail in the next moment and get a lot of pressure on the tail. Stay low and try to make a short turn. The turn will become wide anyway. And than let it go. The sail will open and release the overpower and now you can go for the cutback. Never oversheet your sail.

Hi Ronnie,
most important is, that you could do it. Perhaps your sail was much too big in size.
Yes it was!

You could get a smaller fin in your board

Yup , wiind increased and caught me out!

and for sure a 370 mast.

at least that was right!

In my opinion you could take a wide grip on the boom befor ethe turn, sheet in very aggressive before initiating whileopening the sail in the next moment and get a lot of pressure on the tail. Stay low and try to make a short turn. The turn will become wide anyway. And than let it go. The sail will open and release the overpower and now you can go for the cutback. Never oversheet your sail.

Your are right with

"you could take a wide grip on the boom befor ethe turn, sheet in very aggressive before initiating whileopening the sail in the next moment and get a lot of pressure on the tail. Stay low and try to make a short turn."

However I am still mixed up re : " The turn will become wide anyway"

With an offshore wind i can manage a squirt turn to get from facing upwind to riding dtl IN ADVANCE of bootom turn.

Is this possible if wind is slightly onshore?
OR does one have to skip the "riding along the top of the wave" and go straight into bottom turn IN FRONT of the wave? (as in the Cseven clips )

Thanks again

Ronnie

Hope it helps,
Chris

Ola_H

14th November 2008, 04:14 AM

Hi Ronnie5

SOme pic were taken at a cross o session this monday, and when I saw them I remember your puzzlement about:

"The turn will become wide anyway"

I'll try to show with a long series of pics.

This was cross on. Worse than it looks, actually. The wave was also very irregular. Either it just flattened out into almost nothing or it dumped quite heavily, taking no prisoners:
http://www.olah.se/Windsurfing/Asa_081110/Images/_Z0D6475_V2.jpg

To make things worse, the wind had died, so I was barely planing unless pumping onto a wave which what I just did here:
http://www.olah.se/Windsurfing/Asa_081110/Images/_Z0D6703.jpg

I have reasonable speed and is preparing the turn, high up on the wave, which is good.
The next pic also sow the turn setup. No real problems yet.
http://www.olah.se/Windsurfing/Asa_081110/Images/_Z0D6704.jpg

But in this pic we have the real key to why this ends up being a bad turn. We'll come back to why, but just notice I am rather passively gliding along, unloading the sail, looking for where to go and so on. All good things to do sometimes, but not here.
http://www.olah.se/Windsurfing/Asa_081110/Images/_Z0D6705.jpg

Now I'm really entering the turn and this looks pretty OK. Good rail, OK speed, looking for the section to hit etc. The sail is still pretty unpowered.
http://www.olah.se/Windsurfing/Asa_081110/Images/_Z0D6706.jpg

This is the most powerful part of the turn. Sail is kicking in.
http://www.olah.se/Windsurfing/Asa_081110/Images/_Z0D6707.jpg

Now I'm suddenly in the phase where you i onshore riding need to open up the sail a bit. I've passed the apex of the turn and no more power can be generated from turning, only possible from the sail (which was not an option here).
http://www.olah.se/Windsurfing/Asa_081110/Images/_Z0D6708.jpg

Now we'll see problems emerging. I had to open up a lot. The posision I'm in makes it super hard to turn sharp unless you prepared for that type of turn from the beginning. I'm pretty much going in the direction I'm going, slowing down all the time.
http://www.olah.se/Windsurfing/Asa_081110/Images/_Z0D6709.jpg

The section I would have liked to hit am above me. I have no chance to go vert and catch it.
http://www.olah.se/Windsurfing/Asa_081110/Images/_Z0D6710.jpg

For a slow lousy top turn on a flat shoulder.
http://www.olah.se/Windsurfing/Asa_081110/Images/_Z0D6712.jpg

I claim the problem was in the pic I called key above. There I took the safe option and sacrificed time on looking ahead. If you would have turned hard already at that stage, I would have gained some angle towards the face which would have paid off the whole wave and I could have gone steeper up the wave at an earlier time.

Lets look at another sequence.

Here, already at the entrance I'm pointing more down the line. Not absolutely necessary, but often helpful as long as you can keep your speed doing it.
http://www.olah.se/Windsurfing/Asa_081110/Images/_Z0D6602.jpg

I'm going harder into the turn, with more sail power activated right from the start.
http://www.olah.se/Windsurfing/Asa_081110/Images/_Z0D6603.jpg

This pays off in more drive.
http://www.olah.se/Windsurfing/Asa_081110/Images/_Z0D6604.jpg

With more speed and drive, I do not need to open the sail as early. My apparent speed away from the wind is greater.
http://www.olah.se/Windsurfing/Asa_081110/Images/_Z0D6605.jpg

Now I have to start to open up, but I'm already on my way up the wave instead of just along it.
http://www.olah.se/Windsurfing/Asa_081110/Images/_Z0D6606.jpg

This is still a kind of passive phase, but in a much better position. Even if I don't manage to swing more vert (which is possible, but hard) I will still be in a pretty good spot.
http://www.olah.se/Windsurfing/Asa_081110/Images/_Z0D6607.jpg

The timing is not perfect and I'm not hitting the lip, but I have enough speed to set up a reasonable turn. The pic don't show explicitly, but I'm also coming into the turn much faster than in the previous sequence..
http://www.olah.se/Windsurfing/Asa_081110/Images/_Z0D6608.jpg

...and get some white water chasing me when do it.
http://www.olah.se/Windsurfing/Asa_081110/Images/_Z0D6609.jpg

I even come out of it with a bit of speed
http://www.olah.se/Windsurfing/Asa_081110/Images/_Z0D6610.jpg

Better, right? And the difference was all in the turn entry. As Chris said, the turn will be wide anyway. Both turns shown are rather long and wide. But in the second one I have an advantage throughout the turn that comes from the sharper, harder entry.

In more sideshore conditions, taking some extra time to prepare the power phase of the turn can be a good thing. You'll have lots of options to choose your line and can make a variety of turn choices later. But in onshore you just have to be on it form the start if you want to avoid the long clew first waiting (which can have its time and place, but not this day).